WTF happens to the Raiders now? Unlike other "family" owned teams, with Al you never heard of him having his kids or anyone else involved in the management at all. I mean heck, look at Bob and Jonathan here. If Bob has a heart attack, Jonathan can keep running the business side while BB runs the football side.

In Oakland, is there anyone left to run anything? My impression was Al was the boss of everything.

Al Davis has caught a lot of flack over the past few years, but he should be remembered in passing for his positive contributions. Perhaps most importantly was his idea to aggressively pursue some of the NFL's top players and sign them to contracts in the mid-60's; this may have been the biggest factor to the NFL wanting to merge with the AFL rather than compete with, and try to put them out of business.

This guy gave people a chance. He got burnt at times, but if you look at things historically, he gave a lot of black players a chance at a time where a team like the Redskin no minority in the team out of bigotry and backwards thinking.
He brought scouting in the NFL to a heighten level. Back in the 60s who the hell had heard of a College like Prairie View? Yes, those are the places Al went and got players and gave them a chance to play and boy they could play.

Without Davis, the NFL would never be what it is today. He was the one who worked hard to give the AFL legitimacy that prompted the AFL/NFL merger (granted he was against the merger since he felt the AFL was going to overshadow the NFL). He was leader in racial integration in professional football too.

Yes, he became a joke late in life, but he was a visionary in his prime. RIP.